Colin Forbes Books In Order

Publication Order of Snow Books

Publication Order of David Martini Books

Publication Order of Tweed & Co. Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Colin Forbes was the pen name used by the famous British author Raymond Harold Sawkins for writing his mystery and thriller novels. He also made use of other pen names such as Richard Paine, Harold English, and Jay Bernard throughout his writing career. Colin has written a total of 3 thriller novel series in his career, most of which are spy thriller. He is particularly well known for writing down the Tweed and Co series. Before becoming a full time writer, Colin used to work as a sub-editor for one of the publishing companies in England. After doing it for a few years, he went on to serve in the British Army in the Middle East and North Africa during the time of the Second World War. After coming back from the war, Colin once again started working for a publishing company, but this time in the printing department. Later, he transitioned himself into a full time novelist and wrote a number of mystery and thriller novels. Colin died on August 23, 2006 due to a heart attack. He was born on July 14, 1923 in Hampstead, London, The United Kingdom. Author Colin began his career as a published author in the year 1966 with the publication of his debut novel titled Snow on High Ground, which he wrote using his original name, Raymond Harold Sawkins.

Among all the pen names that he used for writing his various novels, Colin Forbes is his most preferred one. He used this pseudonym for the first time for writing the novel Tramp in Armour in the year 1969. Colin began referring this novel to his debut novel and later distance himself all his previous works. Over the course of his writing career, Colin had written more than 40 novels. The most famous work of author Colin included the novels of the long running and successful thriller series featuring the main character as Tweed, who was described by him as the Deputy Director of the ‘Secret Intelligence Service’. As a child, Colin studied in The Lower School located in Harrow, London. When he was 16 years old, he began working for a magazine. Later, when he retired from his military service in the British Army, he remained attached to editing as a member of the Army Newspaper Unit, in Rome. However, he traveled to a number of places in London for the next 20 years and eventually became a writer. As far as the personal life of author Colin is concerned, he was married to a Scottish-Canadian woman named Jane Robertson, who died in the year 1993.

The couple had a daughter named Janet. Author Colin was known for personally visiting each and every location that he featured in his novels in order to make his written works look a lot more authentic. Due to this, he has given a lot of detailed descriptions about the places in which the action sequences of his novels take place. One of his novels titled ‘Fury’, which was published in the year 1995, was inspired by Colin’s courageous wife before her death. He had set aside that novel of all his other works because of the emotional attachment and the sense of loss that he had with it. One of the other novels written by author Colin Forbes was adapted into a movie called Avalanche Express. It starred Robert Shaw and Lee Marvin in the lead roles and was directed by Mark Robson. The film was released in theaters in the year 1979 but did not do a good business after its release.

One of the highly successful novel series written by author Colin Forbes was titled as ‘Tweed & Co.’. It consists of a total of 24 books published between the years 1982 and 2006. All the novels of the series feature the lead character in the form of Tweed and his team consisting of Bob Newman and Paula Gray, all of whom worked for a British intelligence agency called as SIS. One of the initial novels of the series was published under the titled ‘Terminal’ and was released by the Trans-Atlantic publishing house in the year 1984. The plot of this novel is set in Bern, Switzerland, during the time of the year 1984. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, it is shown that a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland is carrying out experiments on the human guinea pigs who were found to be terminally ill.

Somehow, one among them becomes successful in escaping from the test center and goes on to tell the world about the best kept secret of the Swiss military. Soon, the British intelligence agent named Tweed and his companion named Bob Newman begin to work on the case. They get involved in a number of dangerous activities while working on the case, such as escaping from the enemies on the Swiss trains cheating deaths. They even stay at the luxurious hotels and drink lots of coffee and champagne. In the end, the novel turns out to be an exciting read as the readers come to know about the secrets behind the experiments carried out by the Swiss Army as well as the intentions of the renegade battalion in trying to guard the Barne Clinic. As Tweed strives to find out the answers to all his questions related to the case, he seems to be going on to change the prevalent stability of the western Europe for all the good reasons.

One of the other novels of the Tweed & Co series was published under the title ‘Cover Story’. It was released by the Pan Publishing company in the year 1986. The plot of this novel is set in Helsinki, Finland; and Estonia and Stockholm in Sweden. It continues to revolve around the happenings in the lives of Tweed and his team members of the intelligence agency. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, it is shown that the wife of Bob Newman dies in his hands after delivering an important message to him about Adam Procane. The intelligence agency receives a film about the murder of Bob’s wife with warning that they should remain away from Adam Procane. Tweed comes to know that Procane is one of the top officials in Washington, who is about to defect. And as the Presidential elections are only a couple of months away, it is the last thing that the people of America want. The problem faced by Tweed and his team members is that they do not have complete information about Procane and without that, they cannot proceed further to stop him. After waiting patiently for some time, Tweed learns that 4 suspected American citizens have crossed through the Scandinavia route. They include CIA’s Deputy Head, Adviser of the National Security Services, his wife, and the Chief of the Armed Forces. Now, anyone among them can be Procane. On the other hand, Bob Newman moves to Finland with the intention of taking revenge of the murder of his wife. As the situation is getting more and more tense, Tweed is required to act fast. He needs to Bob and identify Adam Procane from the list of suspected people, before the vital information are leaked to the East through him or her.